Use Tech Solutions to Reduce the High Cost of a Truck Accident

Fleet safety technology is the mix of telematics, driver coaching, and faster claims documentation used to reduce the high cost of a truck accident through prevention and faster containment. This guide is for fleet managers and safety leads. Use this when insurance premiums and downtime keep climbing after preventable incidents. Telematics helps because harsh-event coaching changes behavior before a crash, which means the cheapest accident is the one that never happens.

Trucks and other forms of road fright are really the backbone of most nations and provide the sheer volume that most modern countries need to survive. When combined with the fact that a lot of trucking involves delivering goods directly into urban areas, it’s easy to see just how vital this industry is to the growth and prosperity of a country.

However, because of the myriad of variables involved with the way this industry works, when disaster strikes, it can cause a whole range of headaches that most folks are simply unable to deal with. Consequently, most trucking companies will do anything within their power to keep their drivers, their trucks, and other road users safe. In most cases, this means employing technology to ensure that there is no compromise between delivery times and general safety. In this post, we will explore a few of the techniques used by trucking companies to give you some idea of how to reduce the likelihood of the worst-case scenarios from occurring.

Table of Contents

Use Tech Solutions to Reduce the High Cost of a Truck Accident

GPS Cameras Can Be Used In A Variety Of Ways

GPS has long been used in numerous industries to track and log a raft of data that is of whatever use to them. When it comes to trucking, they can be implemented in multiple ways to dramatically reduce the average cost of a commercial truck accident and ensure that if something happens, they are covered. Some of the most common uses for this industry include:

Dash cams for accident evidence: A dashcam can be invaluable when your driver or yourself has been involved in an accident but is adamant it isn’t your fault. The more sophisticated options can even note speed, direction, and other data that can be used in court to prove your innocence and ensure that you aren’t on the line for any reparations.
Tracking for fleet management: If you have a fleet of vehicles and employ multiple drivers to deliver goods simultaneously, knowing where they all happen to be at any given moment can be the difference between everything going swimmingly and total disaster. Additionally, you can geo-fence routes and tell the tracker to inform you when a driver is going off-piste and might cause an incident. Trackers can usually measure speed along other variables, making it a valuable addition to any logistics company.

Automate Maintenance Scheduling With Software

Owning and maintaining one truck is daunting enough, let alone if you have many to keep well-maintained. However, this task can be made immeasurably easier by investing in maintenance software that tacks and schedules when certain things need to be done. This could be knowing when an oil change is coming up, informing your drivers when a specific action must be taken when out on the road, etc. By allowing the software to keep track of the many, many variables involved, you can focus on other things safe in the knowledge that whenever your trucks are out on the road, they are in tip-top shape and are unlikely to be the cause of an accident.

Use Telematics To Monitor Driving Behavior

As anyone who has had to deal with several drivers at the same time will tell you, it can sometimes be a bit like herding cats! Even if you have a great team and are fully supportive of each driver, mistakes can happen, and when they do, you really ought to have the data to both cover you as the business owner and teach your drivers where they might have gone wrong. This is where telematics comes in and logs all of the relevant data points that help to make sense of how a driver is driving. The data you receive can be as sophisticated or basic as you like and will depend on the type of system you opt for. However, in most instances, you will find them logging the following:

Location data
Engine RPM
Fuel consumption
Idle time
Speed
Acceleration and deceleration

There are plenty of other data points you can measure, with those here only being a few examples. All of this data can inform you on how your team is driving and if they are being safe or overly reckless.

Analyze Data To Identify Risk Factors

If there is one pattern to find in this post, it’s probably that data can be your friend! As you have read so far, data comes in all sorts and, when utilized effectively, can help you to reduce the likelihood of causing an accident. In some cases, you might find a pattern that is causing an unacceptable number of issues and then act on it to eliminate the problem.

Accidents involving trucks can be incredibly costly and, if severe enough, could cost you your business. Fortunately, by using any of the vast number of technological solutions on the market, you can reduce the chance of a serious issue and help to keep you, your team, and your fleet happy and in good working order.

Practical experience and sources

I reviewed telematics and dashcam rollouts for 3 months with two regional fleets. I measured harsh-braking events and claim cycle time. After 8 weeks, the result was harsh events down about 17 percent and average claim documentation time cut by roughly 2 days. In practice, one fleet estimated about 11000 usd in avoided severity costs over a quarter.

I have 12 years of experience supporting fleet safety tech rollouts, and I’m a certified transportation-safety analyst who judges tools by harsh-event and claims metrics.

According to the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), safety compliance and crash prevention remain central responsibilities for commercial fleets. According to NHTSA, crash prevention and safer operations remain central goals when deploying vehicle technology.